Time in America
by caleb-bogart
Summary: After the death old Lord Voldermort, and the end of the war, the golden trio need a break. America should be nice. What can go wrong?
1. Chapter 1

LORD VOLDERMORT IS DEAD!

HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED IS NO MORE!

YOU-KNOW-WHO HAS BEEN SLAYED BY THE CHOSEN ONE!

It had been a month since Harry Potter had killed the Dark Lord at the battle of Hogwarts. Harry, along with his two best friends Harmione Granger, and Ron Weasley were sitting in the Leaky Cauldron pub in London drinking tall frothing tankards of beer to drown the memories of their fallen comrades. After seeing so many people killed at the hands of Voldermort or his followers, the golden trio had trouble sleeping at night. The nightmares came in a flood of screaming, tossing, and finally waking in a cold sweat. It seemed numbing the pain under the influence of alcohol was the only way to cope.

The three just sat at the table, not saying a word. Harmione had been kicking around an idea for a few weeks now, but wasn't sure how to explain it. It was rather obvious they needed an escape. A way out. A break from the constant reporters, and the flashes of the cameras. She decided to just pluck up the nerve and try to explain her idea.

"Anybody wan't to go to America?" she asked quickly, mentally slapping herself for the odd way she proposed her plan. Ron looked up from his pewter tankard. "What you on about Hermione?"

It was past the point of no return now. "Listen. Both of you." The two boys lifted their heads to give their resident bookworm their full attention. "We need a break. We need a vacation. I was at the library last week and found some books on the United States. It used to be tradition that witches and wizards go on a world tour after graduating school. Maybe a change in scenery would lift our spirits up."

Harry and Ron didn't say anything, but she had a point. They were turning into drunkards. Something needed to be done.

"We could get a portkey to New York city, and visit the American Ministry, then we could visit the sites of the Salem which trials, and maybe try and find a Tommyknocker in a coal mine in the mountains..."She went on and on about the various sites to visit, and how much fun it would be. The two boys liked the idea of escaping England for a while. They didn't know much about magical America, but they knew they preferred to stay to themselves and not be bothered by outside happenings.

Harry mused to himself "Maybe nobody will know who I am...No chosen one...no boy who lived...I could just be Harry."

Harmione was glad he was liking the idea. She knew how Harry hated the popularity of being who he was.

Ron seemed to be lost in thought, with his eyes glazed over. He muttered to himself, not realizing he was speaking out loud. "Yah, Las Vagas, Strip bars, The Playwizard masion...OUCH, Sorry Harmione!"

She glared at her boyfriend and watched him rub his arm where she had punched him. "Anyway," she continued "if we want to take the long way, we could take an airplane! Your father would be thrilled to hear about flying in jet!"

The three were looking excited now. New places, new people. No war. "Yah, I can fund the trip!" Harry said "Harmione can plan it out, and Ron can be our designated drunk!"

Harry looked a little self conscious then "Suppose we can take Ginny with us? That way we can be even in terms of gender? Like, if me and Ron want to do something, but you girls want to do something else, we dont have to fight over what we do?"

Ron had come to terms that Harry was Ginny's boyfriend by this time, and seen that if Ron would have is girl along, that Harry should have his. Molly Weasley would take some convincing, but it could be done.

The three stayed up most the night making plans. When they arrived back at the Borrow, everybody else was still asleep, so they crept upstairs as quiet at they could, and went to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

When the trio woke up and headed down to lunch after sleeping in the whole morning, everything seemed fine in the world. Molly Weasley was whistling a tune while setting the table, and Arthur Weasley had just come in from playing with his plugs in the garage. While eating their bacon sandwiches, Harry decided to bring up the news about the trip to America.

Ginny, who kept to herself most of the time, sprang up in her seat and started pacing the floor planning what the four would do in the states. This planning was a tad premature, as the parents had not given permission yet.

Molly was the most upset. Not at Harry, Ron, and Hermione going, but the thought of her little girl being so far away from home. After the battle of Hogwarts, it was plain to the Weasley matriarch that her daughter could more than take care of herself, and she had trouble coming to grips with her little Ginny being grown up.

"Oh! You all are just children! America is so far away! What if something happened?" Molly Weasley cried. "Arthur, talk some sense into them, please!"

The Weasley patriarch sat up in his seat slowly, and wiped his forehead. "Now, you are still very young, and the tradition of taking a world tour has long been abandoned. However, I agree that a vacation would do you all a lot of good. As for Ginny, she is an adult now, even though her seventeenth birthday was only last week." He looked Harry square in the eyes. "I'm trusting you with my daughter. I like you Harry, you are one of the family. But, you can understand my motive when I tell you, that if Ginny comes to any harm, I will go to the contraband room in the ministry and get a shotgun. Do you understand?"

Harry knew that Arthur loved Harry like a son. But Ginny was his only daughter, and had a right to be protective. "Yes Sir." Harry said seriously.

Molly Weasley was in shock. After a few minuets of sitting in awed silence, she threw her hands up and screamed "FINE! Go to America! You're old enough to make your own decisions!" And with that, she stormed upstairs crying.

Mr. Weasley looked pained. He knew that his wife was not happy, but the group needed a break. George had the joke shop to look after and occupy his time. Bill, Charley and Percy had their jobs and families. The kids needed a break.

"Now, that that's all done, Getting to America will be the hard part. Taking a muggle airplane won't work because we don't legally exist in the muggle world. When Harry turned seventeen his muggle records were burned and all trace of him legally were destroyed. Same with Hermione, and us Weasleys. We used to be able to take muggle transport internationally, but since those towers in New York were attacked, you have to have identification for everything now."

Harry and Hermione gasped. They had no idea their muggle lives were totally taken away. They both knew it was for the best, as having a paper trail to the magical world would be problematic at some point. But how did they get to America now? Portkey travel?

Arthur seen the worry on their faces, and spoke up. "Now, Most people who travel extremely long distances normally do not use a portkey, as they are uncomfortable enough on shorter travels, but people tend to pass out at journeys over a hundred miles. Now, there are special wizard ships that travel internationally. Let me look and see when the next one to the states is."

The rest of the night was spent discussing what do do in America, and what Arthur wanted pictures of when they got back. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were getting more excited my the minuet.


	3. Chapter 3

The very next day Mr. Weasley came home from work with a grin on his face that stretched from ear to ear. "Good news everybody!" He yelled as he came through the kitchen door. "The steamer 'Polaris' leaves for America next week!"

Cheers came up from the kitchen table where the four had been waiting on the eldest Weasley. Harmione asked "Does it arive in New York City? I've always wanted to visit the empire state building!"

"Well, it doesn't arive in America directly" Mr. Weasley explained. "It leaves from a remote harbor in Cork Ireland, then it makes its way across the ocean to an Island in the Bermuda triangle, then, you will take an airship to an abandon coal mine in the mountains that they have converted into a wizarding travel center. You can't sail directly to New York any more because it is too heavally populated now, you see?. And most of the coast line is taken up by hotels and tourist attractions. But from the coal mine, you can hire a guide to get you to New York, or Boston, or wherever you want to go."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny seen a few problems with this plan. "Mr. Weasley?" Harry Asked. "Won't the muggles see a giant bloody Airship flying around? I mean, I seen pictures of the Hindenburg, and it was huge!"

Ah, you see Harry, it is far easyer to make an Airship look like a cloud, than it is to make a paddle steamer to look like a wave."

Hermione looked at Mr. Weasley in awe. "Wait...Did you say a 'paddle steamer'? I dont think thy have made ocean going paddle steamer since the eighteen sixtys"!

Mr. Weasley laughed. "Yes, yes, it is old. Built in eighteen fifty seven I think. My uncle David used to be the captain. He showed us all pictures when he could come for christmas. Ron, and Ginny are probably too young to remember him though."

Ron and Ginny's eyes got wide. "Wait," Ron said. "Isn't he?" Ginny interupted. "The uncle that pulled flowers out of his arse?"

Mr. Weasley put his head in his hands. Not at Ginny's language, but for the memory of uncle Luke yanking a handfull of roses out of his rear at his Wedding.

"No, No, that was Luke...David was the uncle that got him drunk so he WOULD pull flowers out of his arse."

Ron and Hermione were laughing now, but Ron and Ginny still looked horrified. "It's not funny mate! Like may have pulled flowers out his arse, but David made a charm that made him piss butterbeer! And he would hang around the punch bowl scarring people away so he and Luke could drink their fill without having to wait in line! Yah, I remember David, Dad."

Ginny rememberd the only time she had seen David, he was pissing on his great aunt. She shuddered at the memory.

Arthur coughed a bit as he tried to change subject. "Well, anyways, There are a few more things I learned. If you go full muggle, you save a lot of money! The exchange rate favors the American muggles a lot. A British gallion is worth over two thousand dollars! I have done to research and asked some other people at the ministry, and they said that you could travel first class and eat in the most expencive resturaunts for the whole trip and only spend a few hundred gallions."

"Wow!" Everybody said at once. Ron asked "But why don't wizards go to America more? Sounds like a cheap way to live it up!"

"Very good point Ron, most magicall folk don't travel internationally anymore unless it is for the Quidditch world cup, or other buisness. I don't know why, but it isn't done any more. Now I asked one of the clarks at the ministry who has a cousin in Idaho, where some good places to visit would be, and he said if you go to New York City after getting off the Airship, you can have a good time there. Then, the capitol, and after that start working your way west. you can hire a wizard driver in New York, and he will take you everywhere you want to go. Or, since Ron has taken his muggle drivers test, he might be able to rent a car and do the driving. The clark said the wizarding cars in America have wards on them so if a policeman pulles you over, he will just give you a warning and send you on your way."

As per usual, the rest of the night was spent making plans and deciding where they all wanted to go. They agreed that they would rent a car, and Ron would drive.

After a week of planning, packing, and getting ever more excited about the trip, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, were leaving the borrow, bound for Ireland to board the paddle steamer Polaris.


End file.
